Introduction of the vegetable garden project for children:

The teachers (and parents) of Big Ben Kids Scheveningen / The Hague involved the preschool children of the international childcare in this vegetable adventure from start to finish. From coming up with a name for the garden, thinking about which vegetables and fruits should be planted, marking the garden, planting the seeds, taking care of the plants, seeing how everything grows and finally harvesting and tasting everything . It is one big and great adventure with fantastic results.

Why gardening is important and fun for children?

Gardening is extremely beneficial for children and their early childhood education. It fosters key life skills that are often undervalued in a lot of conventional education curriculums.

Gardening is the perfect activity to encourage children to get outside and play in nature while learning about the world. At Big Ben Kids we believe in the many benefits that such a rich, wholesome outdoor activity can bring to young children.

Our teaching methods are inspired by children’s curiosity and imagination designed to nurture the development and growth of each child; what better way to facilitate this than by gardening.

Humans of every age enjoy gardening, but children in particular have lots of fun and gain so many benefits.

Learning Goals:

Gardening is exciting, educational, and develops important new skills, including:

• Appreciation of nature – children in the garden can learn about the outdoor environment in a safe and nurturing space;
• Responsibility – derived from caring for plants that rely on the children to thrive;
• Understanding of life’s processes – as children learn about cause and effect (for example, plants die without water, weeds compete with plants);
• Confidence and Resilience – through achieving their goals of growing certain plants and enjoying the food they have grown;
• Cognitive development and problem solving skills – learning about the ecosystem in the garden, plants, animals, insects, weather, the environment, nutrition, and simple building skills;
• Physical activity – gardening gets kids out into the open air and moving their bodies.
• Teamwork – gardening for children is a great way to encourage shared play activity, which will help them to develop social skills;
• Creativity – finding new and exciting ways to grow food can inspire the creativity and innovation in every child;
• Nutrition – learning about where real food comes from, not the supermarket!

The gardening project in devided in 3 phases:

1. First Phase – preparing the soil: fertilising and mixing top soil with the existing one;
2. Second Phase – setting up the vegetables garden (planting and sowing, labelling the plants);
3. Third phase – maintaining the garden (watering the plants, pruning, weeding, harvesting).

‘From the garden to the plate’ – how wonderful is to enjoy and taste the food from our own garden!